Tuesday November 4, 2008 will be a day forever remembered. For millions of people, it was a day that hope triumphed over prejudice. The front page article of the November 6th edition of USA Today featured a by-line that read: “This is the only place in the world this could happen.” In the the article author Rick Hampson added, “It is the first time any nation with a white majority elected a non-white head of state.” The same evening CNN TV newscaster Campbell Brown closed her broadcast by saying, “Even if you did not support the election of Barack Obama, you can not deny that overnight we are a changed nation.”
During the same week I had the opportunity to be a case-study leader at the 31st annual “Ethical Decision Making and Moral Values Symposium” for college students in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. When we first met as a group on Thursday morning, just two days after the election, the students were still “buzzing” about what had happened on Election Day. I therefore decided to spend the first hour discussing the historic event with emphasis on what President Elect Obama needed to do to keep alive the enormous hope that people now felt world-wide. The major conclusion reached by the students: “Barack Obama must demonstrate by his words AND deeds that he is an ethical person of the highest order and a servant leader.” Specifically, they said he must do four things:
• Be totally forthright and honest with the public,
• Place a high emphasis on ethical considerations in his decision making with advisors and staff,
• Fill key cabinet and staff positions with competent leaders known for having strong ethics, and
• Demonstrate repeatedly that he truly cares for others.
The editors of the free Leadership Guide Magazine (CLICK HERE) therefore decided to devote this month’s edition to the topics of ethics and servant leadership. The featured articles are entitled:
• “The Greater Than Yourself Challenge” by Linda Hatcher,
• “Ethical and Practical: Research Shows the Connection” by Linda Hatcher, and
• “Humility and Servant Leadership: The Greatest Lesson Ever!” by Fred A. Manske Jr.
INSPIRING LEADERSHIP QUOTATIONS:
“In organizations, real power and energy is generated through relationships. The patterns of relationships and the capacities to form them are more important than tasks, functions, roles, and positions.
- Margaret Wheatley, Leadership and the New Science
“Ideals are like stars: you will not succeed in touching them with your hands. But like the seafaring man on the desert of waters, you will choose them as your guides, and following them you will reach your destiny”
- Carl Schurz
